


it goes on

by punk_rock_yuppie



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, F/M, Get together fic, Grieving, Hopeful Ending, Introspection, M/M, Multi, Sweet but Bittersweet, canon character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 19:07:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14700366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punk_rock_yuppie/pseuds/punk_rock_yuppie
Summary: "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."—Robert FrostKevin and Moose, after.





	it goes on

**Author's Note:**

> basically kicks off from the scene in the season finale when moose n'kevin kiss in the bathroom; i've shipped Kevin/Moose/Midge since the Love, Simon episode tho, when i was SO sure they were going to give us that OT3. this is just a little angsty thing; thanks to hannah for beta'ing!
> 
> enjoy!

Kevin kisses Moose and it tastes like regret.

Not regret for kissing him, or holding him, or telling him everything will be okay.

No, the kiss tastes like regret for all the things they could’ve been. All the things they can never be, now that Midge is gone.

 

It’s like this—

 

Midge had known. She wasn’t dumb, or naive, or _blind_ ; she’d have to have been all of those to miss the way Moose looked at Kevin and the way Kevin looked right back. It was plain as day, much as Kevin wishes he could claim otherwise.

So Midge had known. There’d been that glint in her eyes, the curve of her lips, both of which almost seemed like they were saying _“it’s okay.”_ Like she was giving them permission, the go-ahead. Not to go on without her but to make their own little space in Riverdale, in their relationship, alongside what she and Moose already had.

Midge had known and she hadn’t minded. Not that Kevin ever really got a chance to talk to her about it, but still. The point stands that Midge would’ve let Moose date him— _and_ her, what a trip—and they could’ve been… happy. Kevin thinks it would’ve worked. Might’ve been a little weird, sure, but that’s basically the default setting in Riverdale. No one would bat an eye at three teenagers all holding hands.

Kevin still thinks about it sometimes: what it would’ve been like to lay in a big bed or in the grass with the two of them. Moose in the middle with his simple, sweet, shy smile. Midge on one side and Kev on the other. It’s idealistic, in his head: a little embellished. But that’s what fantasies are for, he tells himself; it’s not like it matters anyway.

Midge is gone.

 

It isn’t as though he and Moose can’t be happy together _now_. They can be, they probably will be. It’s just not the same. Kevin isn’t even sure Moose understands what Midge was telling them—without words, without drawing attention to it—but figures it’s a moot point now. It’s just the two of them, and even though it feels sort of wrong it feels sort of right, too.

It’s not perfect.

Moose cries a lot and holds Kevin like he’s afraid he’ll leave too. Kevin feels Moose’s aching heart like a slug in his own chest, and sometimes the pain takes his breath away. Some days Kevin feels more like a rebound than anything else and other days—ones where Moose brings him flowers in the middle of the hall, outside his locker, feet shuffling nervously but not _afraid_ —Kevin feels like this is what they were always meant to be.

It’s not perfect, not by a longshot.

 

“Kevin?”

He rolls over and smiles in the face of Moose’s sleep-dazed concern. “It’s alright.” They’re sharing a bed, and it’s a little too small to fit both of them and never could’ve fit a third person. “Go back to sleep.” He pats at Moose’s chest.

Moose’s expression turns into a lazy grin and the arm around Kevin’s waist tightens before he’s drifting back off to sleep. Kevin watches him for another moment, biting his lip and willing his thoughts to slow down. He settles in the curve of Moose’s body and hides his face against Moose’s neck.

 

It’s not perfect. But it’s good.


End file.
